Category: acid house

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstay Dylan Rafael Shares Bombastic Banger “Owsley’s Acid”

23 year-old, New York-based electronic music producer, DJ and JOVM mainstay Dylan Rafael discovered his passion for DJ’ing when he turned 12 — 12 y’all! When he turned 20, he started to learn how to produce his own original material, which led him to playing at clubs like Lavo and nebula, and opening slots for Ship Wrek, Dzeko, Gordo and others. 

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past handful of months, you’d know that 2023 has been a prolific year for the young and rising New York-based producer

2023 has been a profile year for the young and rising New York-based producer. He has released a number of singles, including:

  • “Cham Cham,” a standalone Balearic-tinged house banger with elements of tribal house and Larry Levan-like house featuring skittering tweeter and woofer rattling beats and subtle Middle Eastern instrumentation paired with euphoria-inducing hooks.

  • “I Believe” an upbeat banger, built around twinkling and percussive synth arpeggios, skittering beats, euphoria inducing hooks paired with enormous drops and Roland Clark‘s booming delivery inviting the listener to come to the welcoming and loving church of house music.

The JOVM mainstay continued a prolific year with the recently released Naraka EP, which featured “Ego Dissolution,” a swaggering, slickly produced, thumping banger that wouldn’t sound out of place Electric Zoo, Ibiza, Berghain or any of the hottest clubs in the world. The EP’s second single “Owsley’s Acid” is a slick and bombastic synthesis of Spanish and Mexican folk, acid house, deep house and balearic house paired with the New York-based artist’s penchant for enormous hooks drops.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: A.K.A. Shares a Cinematic, Deep House Banger

Audio Key Architects (A.K.A) is a Paris-based sibling production and DJ duo. Driven by a deep and abiding passion for electronic music and techno, their collaborative project is guided by a share vision of sharing what they love to create and listen to — with the world. 

Over the past couple of months I’ve written about the following singles:

  • “Ellipse,” a single which begins with a Flamenco-like introduction before quickly morphing into a eep house/techno banger that featured a soulful, wailing vocal sample, bursts of vocodered vocals, glistening synth oscillations and skittering beats paired with the duo’s uncannily cinematic sense of melody.

  • “Fenrir,” a hard-hitting, aggressive techno banger built around tribal percussion, glistening synth arpeggios and a relentless motorik groove. Th result is a song that wouldn’t sound out of place at Electric Zoo — while bringing JOVM mainstays LutchamaK and Bubba Brothers to mind.

“Dune,” the Parisian sibling duo’s latest single is sleek, club friendly banger that alternates between taunt, uneasy tension and radiant, meditative beauty while prominently featuring glistening synth arpeggios paired with a relentless motorik groove. Much like its immediate predecessors “Dune” further cements A.K.A.’s uncanny penchant for cinematic melodicism.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstay Lutchamak Shares a Swaggering Banger

Over the past couple of years, I’ve managed to spill quite a bit of virtual ink covering the prolific French electronic music producer and JOVM mainstay LutchamaK. 

Continuing upon his long-held reputation for being prolific, LutchamaK began the year with the Bitrate Scale_rmx EP, which featured remixes of Threshold album single “Bitrate Scale” by three artists, who liked his work and wanted to create their own takes. 

He followed that up with the five-song TERMusik, which featured the slickly produced Tour de France and Computerworld-era Kraftwerk-like deep house banger “100 Miles.“

Since then, the French JOVM mainstay has remained busy: He followed the release of those two previously mentioned EPs with the 12 song album way up the path, which featured some of the most eclectic material of his growing catalog to date — with the album’s songs featuring elements electro pop, techno, synth wave, breakbeats and others.

Adding to a rapidly growing catalog, the French JOVM mainstay recently released the four-song X project EP. As LutchamaK tells me, the EP sees him crafting tech house bangers specifically for the dance floor. X project‘s first single, the swaggering “X (version 2.0)” continues a remarkable run of bangers. Drawing from 90s Acid House, the track is centered around tweeter and woofer rocking thump, glistening synth arpeggios and enormous hooks paired with a looped spoken word mantra.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Giulia and Paxtech Give Mark Wise’s “Rumble in the Jungle” a Slick Remix

Mark Pompeo is a New Jersey-based electronic music producer, best known as Mark Wise. Pompeo emerged into the electronic music and techno scenes with 2017’s Loco Motive EP, a collaboration with Mike Stein. 

The New Jersey-based producer’s debut 2018’s Blizzard EP was released through Reflekt Records. And since then, Pompeo has been remarkably prolific, releasing material that sees him blending elements of minimal, progressive techno, house and heavy metal while receiving support from the likes of Marco Carola, Richie Hawtin, Cristian Varela, Spartaque, Lisa Lashes, Phaedon, Vikthor, Illario Alicante, and DJ Dialog. 

Continuing his prolific streak, Pompeo begins this year with the Rumble in the Jungle EP, which was released this week through Beatport, YouTube, and SoundCloud with a Spotify release on January 16, 2022, along with remixes from Giulia & Paxtech and Sisko Electrofanatic. Yesterday, I wrote about EP title track “Rumble in the Jungle,” an expansive banger that saw the rising New Jersey-based producer meshing elements of trance, techno, jungle house and deep house in an accessible, crowd pleasing fashion.

The digital release will also feature, a remix of “Rumble in the Jungle,” by Giulia and Paxtech. While retaining the original’s melodic breakdown and relentless tweeter and woofer rattling thump, the remix places in a new context — trippy high energy, acid techno with a subtle cosmic sheen paired with sampled vocals.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Late last year, I wrote about the somewhat mysterious yet emerging French electronic music artist and producer LutchamaK. Like countless others, the emerging French artist grew up as an avid and passionate music fan, who listened to — and loved — an eclectic array of music, including hip-hop, dub, classical, rock, techno and others. Interestingly enough, the mysterious French artist’s work is deeply influenced by techno — but while nodding at other styles and genres: his first two EPs featured, which he managed to create during such breaks at his day job, featured material that effortlessly meshed techno, house and EDM.

“9th Forest” off the Goth in the Shell EP was a slickly produced, propulsive house-leaning techno track centered around tweeter and woofer rocking beats and arpeggiated synths that recalled JOVM mainstay Boys Noize and Octo Octa, but with a self-assured swagger. LutchamaK begins 2020 continuing a run of slickly produced, swaggering, club friendly house music with his latest single “Later On.” Much like its predecessor, the track is centered around tweeter and woofer rocking beats, shimmering synth arpeggios and a sample of a seductive female vocal — but “Later On” features a decidedly minimalist production reminiscent of Kraftwerk‘s Tour de France.

“I guess the purpose for me is always the same, to make the best song I can,” the emerging French producer and electronic music artist wrote to me in an email. “It  has to move me somehow, to please me so much that I want to share with everybody else. [I’m] hoping this track would get big smiles and make heads and feet move. :)”